I think I ended up as Forbes' business travel blogger because I’m the only Wharton MBA to become a travel writer. I grew up in New England and worked in finance in Tokyo before B-school. Later I moved to Los Angeles to work in the film industry.
In 1998, stunned by my only ever layoff, I began exercising skills (and, let's be frank, pleasures) I’d long left dormant: writing and traveling. A decade and a half later: so far, so good. In addition to Forbes, I’ve been published from Travel+Leisure and the Los Angeles Times to dozens of Lonely Planet titles. I can speak Japanese and French, read Korean menus and embarrass myself in Spanish, Italian and Chinese.
And I continue to polish my business chops with cross-cultural consulting work for companies across the US. In my most traveled year, I logged over 140,000 air miles.
You can see more on my personal blog, wheres-andy-now.com.

Survey: Two-Thirds Of Travelers Want Green Hotels. Here's How To Book Them.

Gardening using native plants is one of the considerations in a hotel's green rating. Pictured: Allison Inn & Spa, Newberg, Oregon.

A survey of 1,300 U.S. travelers by TripAdvisor.com shows that nearly two-thirds of travelers, 62 percent, often or always consider the environment when choosing hotels, transportation and meals. The survey, released today, also shows that 69 percent say they plan to make even more eco-friendly choices in the next 12 months.

The survey also shows that hotels could do a better job of publicizing their green cred. 64 percent of respondents said that they rarely or never feel informed about whether hotels are truly eco-friendly. A whopping 93 percent don’t take it upon themselves to confirm hotels’ green practices. That’s an opportunity for hoteliers and other travel operators.

To that end, today TripAdvisor launched a new rating service called TripAdvisor Green Leaders, in partnership with Energy Star, the U.S. Green Building Council and the United Nations Environment Program. It rates U.S. hotels from bronze to platinum based on their environmental practices: linen and towel reuse, recycling, composting, energy efficient appliances, solar panels, electric car charging stations, green roofing and more.

On TripAdvisor’s hotel search pages, a new green button now appears alongside other categories (business, family, romantic, etc.). Green hotels appear with their green practices. Travelers can follow links to reserve rooms, and post-stay, guests can write comments about how well the hotels are doing. Over 1,000 lodgings in the U.S. are participating in the initial launch of Green Leaders. TripAdvisor claims 32 million members and over 100 million reviews.

Other hotel booking sites including Travelocity and Hotels.com also enable searches with a green option.

Some other findings of the TripAdvisor survey: 84 percent of the respondents did not believe that eco-friendly choices have an impact on comfort or luxury. These travelers already practice some of the most common, easiest to follow green habits in hotels: turning off lights when not in the room (88 percent), reusing towels and linens (78 percent) and recycling (58 percent).

All that said, hotels shouldn’t expect to charge more just because they’re going green. Only 17 percent of travelers said they’d be willing to pay even $25 more for eco-features, while 58 percent said that they would either not pay more or expect to pay less.

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